Wal-Mart’s PR Firm Straddles the Enviro Fence

Edelman is leading a $100 million advertising and lobbying campaign for the oil and gas industry. From National Journal via Potomac Flacks:

API’s Well-Oiled PR Drive

With congressional Democrats readying probes into oil companies’ profits and eyeing legislation aimed at curbing global warming, the American Petroleum Institute and its K Street allies are looking to assemble a $100 million war chest to rally policy makers and public opinion to their side, according to lobbyists.

The image and education effort, much of which will be coordinated by the PR firm Edelman, will include expensive television, radio, and print ads, tours of oil patch facilities for lawmakers and opinion elites, and financial contributions to sympathetic think tanks and industry-friendly organizations.

The API is asking the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, and other oil and gas trade groups to participate in the multiyear effort. “Field trips to educate members [of Congress] may be the single most important thing to do,” says one lobbyist who calls the API’s plan “an industry-wide image program.”

Posted by Russ Fagaly on Wednesday, December 06, 2006